


Cherished Soul

by RaspberrySwish



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Gen, The Sparrow Academy (Umbrella Academy), basically i get sad about a character we know nothing about, just... longing for freedom and a life she long ago decided she couldn't have, living through the things left behind by others
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-17 05:34:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28719711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RaspberrySwish/pseuds/RaspberrySwish
Summary: Late at night, when everyone else is asleep, Sloane will hold close her prized possessions and dream of the outside world.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 18





	Cherished Soul

**Author's Note:**

> As of posting this, the Sparrow Academy castings were announced yesterday so we know nothing about them and this could totally be shot down by canon but like... I don't care? And also it's more headcanony anyways? 
> 
> So basically we have one picture and three bullet points but I'm already feeling emotions about this Sparrow and think you should too <3

In her dreams, she was dancing. 

Gliding, flowing, back and forth as the freezing rain pelted down onto her perfect pink dress, her hair hanging down in soaked strips as the droplets found their way to the ground, chilling her to the bone.

In her dreams she laughed at that.

She continued moving, bare feet sinking into the mud, squelching between her toes as she went through the motions of ballroom dancing that their father had taught them years ago, in case it was ever needed for a mission.

It never was. Not for her.

But Sloane remembered it anyways, holding the steps close to her heart, letting them bleed into it with a steady ache. _One_ , two three, four, _one_ , two, three, four...

 _Someday,_ she told herself often, _someday you’ll be free to dance._

Other times she knew she would never be free at all.

Her hand reached for her bracelet without thinking, a braided old thing a fan had given her when she was a teen, ratty and falling apart after years of use. 

Sloane loved everything she had from outside, but she loved that bracelet the best, keeping it hidden under her uniform sleeve, and never taking it off since.

A soft smile crept over her face.

They had been through a lot, that bracelet and her.

Late at night, when she knew she would not be disturbed, Sloane would slip out of bed, and would pull out her collection, all of it, from inside her mattress, next taking off the false bottoms in her drawers, before reaching up on tiptoes to the old shoebox at the very back of her closet, taking it all down, staring at all the little pieces, each a piece of her soul.

A preserved purple flower, picked from beside a burning hospital, and pressed delicately between the pages of stuffy old books her dad liked but she could never bring herself to read.

A piece of green broken glass and three small shells, sand still clinging inside, found by the docks where they had stopped a large boatjacking. 

A sparkly silver hairtie, of which when tilted light shone patterns on her wall, patterns which she thought it’s owner would like, although they looked different in her mind each day.

A half used chapstick, brought gently up to her face, stilling smelling faintly like cherries after all this time.

Hundreds of little treasures, remnants, pieces of people, of humanity, spread before her, cherished, as if she could somehow know them from the things they had left behind.

Sloane often wondered what she would leave behind.

Could the story of a little girl in a mask even be half as special as anything she had tucked away?

She didn’t know the answer.

As her clock began to inch towards three and Pogo’s rounds crept nearer, Sloane packed away her collection, and laid down in bed, but not before taking one last look through her window, where out on the front street, the Sloane of her dreams was still dancing, laughing in the rain.

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr is @upside-down-umbrellas


End file.
